November 27, 2011 in Idaho

Region tops state averages for opting out of vaccinations

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North Idaho and Eastern Washington share a grim distinction: Both have far higher rates of parents choosing not to immunize their children against childhood disease than either Idaho or Washington as a whole.

As a result, health authorities say, youngsters in the region are at increased risk for illnesses like whooping cough and measles. In early November, nine North Idaho children were diagnosed with whooping cough, also called pertussis.

“It’s a personal choice that does carry consequences, and heavy consequences for some,” said Cynthia Taggart, spokeswoman for the Panhandle Health District, which offers low-cost immunizations in all five North Idaho counties. She noted pertussis can be fatal for babies, which is part of the reason that adults who come in contact with babies are advised to get pertussis booster shots.

Tim Church, communications director for the Washington state Department of Health, said Washington ranked highest in the nation in a 2009 Centers for Disease Control study of parents who choose to exempt their children from vaccinations. “Our goal is to see those exemption rates drop in this state,” he said. “That’s a list we don’t want to be at the top of.”

Washington lawmakers passed a new law this year, which took effect in July, to try to bring down the exemption numbers. Under the new law, parents still can choose not to immunize, but only if they first consult with a health care provider and get a signed form showing they’ve been informed of the consequences.

Church said previous Washington law made it so easy for parents to get an exemption that if they forgot health forms when enrolling their children in school it was easier to sign an exemption form than go get the immunization records.

“It’ll be next fall, probably, before we have any numbers to see if it’s started to make a difference,” Church said. “We want to see more kids vaccinated. The more kids in classes that are vaccinated, the more protected all of the kids are and the community is.”

Idaho lawmakers enacted a law two years ago to expand the state’s immunization reminder system by making it automatic unless parents opt out, rather than requiring parents to elect to get reminders when kids are due for shots. Tom Shanahan, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Welfare, said there’s no information yet on whether that’s prompted more parents to get shots for their kids.

The latest figures on immunization of school-age children are from the 2010-2011 school year. They show that in Idaho, statewide, just 3.8 percent of children were exempted from immunization requirements. That’s a total of 2,550 children; among those, 2,163 were exempted by their parents for personal reasons, rather than medical or religious reasons.

In the Panhandle, however, the figure was much higher: 7.4 percent of children were exempted from immunization, nearly all by parents citing personal reasons.

In Washington, 5.8 percent of children were exempt from immunization, according to records compiled by the Washington state Department of Health, nearly all of them for personal reasons. In Spokane County, that figure was higher at 6.4 percent, but in Stevens County it was nearly triple the state average at 15.3 percent, and in Pend Oreille County, it was an even higher 15.4 percent.

Church noted that rural areas tend to have higher rates of parents choosing not to immunize their kids. “We think convenience is part of it,” he said. “When you live in those rural counties, you have further to go.”

Plus, he noted, “We know in some rural areas there’s more of a free-spirited attitude. … There are people who move to rural areas because they want to get away from regulations. … They don’t want the government to tell them what to do.”

Taggart said anti-immunization groups have been active in North Idaho. “We don’t argue with anybody,” she said. “We tell them that’s a personal choice, but that when they’re not vaccinating, they’re getting exposed and they’re exposing.”

Church said, “We obviously believe the best thing for the kids and the best thing for the health of the state is for parents to get their kids the recommended vaccines.

“Parents have the right to make these decisions, and with this new law, we just want to make sure that they’re talking to informed people, health care providers who know a lot about these issues, and getting information from them,” he said. “… Then it’s up to them to make the best decision for the health of their child.”

Nine comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  idahocity on November 27 at 5:30 a.m.

  read the inserts, the adverse reactions are worse than the actual diseases in most cases. they haven’t even been evaluated for their possible mutagenic potential. which means they could give you cancer. search engine sv40 in polio vaccine.

• 

  Jethro_toll on November 27 at 6:41 a.m.

  The exemptions are in direct negative correlation to the IQ of the parents. On the other hand when one part of our government is lying to you, how do you know that another part isn’t?

  Here’s the deal. If you want to exempt your kids out, then when they catch anything you pay for the medical care out of your own pocket.

• 

  RedCedar on November 27 at 7:58 a.m.

  It’s interesting that “liberal” Washington and “conservative” Idaho share this distinction. I think part of the reason that some parents are reluctant to vaccinate their kids is that vaccination has been pushed with such hard-sell tactics that it’s tempting to just rebel against the whole thing.

  First of all, there’s the hard-sell that says all vaccinations are vital, none should be omitted, and more “required” ones are being added all the time. When kids were only vaccinated against polio and smallpox, both of which were endemic and clearly very dangerous, it was pretty easy to see that the benefit was significant relative to the risks, real or imagined. Then came an ever longer schedule of vaccinations for ever less deadly diseases like measles and mumps. Now the kids are even supposed to be vaccinated against chicken pox. This “mission creep” has made it easier for concerned or lazy parents to skip the whole thing rather than pick and choose which vaccines they personally think are worth the risk.

  Second, there’s the hard-sell that says that vaccinations are 100% good, there is nothing at all wrong with them, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot, or at least an ignorant hick who probably also thinks the Earth is flat. Intelligent people have reasonable concerns. The concerns may lead to incorrect concerns, but they are reasonable concerns in the sense that there are reasons behind them. The medical industry government addresses these concerns by ridiculing the intelligence of the people who have them, rather than by giving evidence to explain that, for example, the huge increase in childhood asthma and allergies that happened during the same decades when vaccinations were increasing, is due to some different cause, or that the chances of a child dying of the mumps or chicken pox are high enough that parents should be concerned. Unsurprisingly, people resent being condescended to, or having their intelligence ridiculed. The hard-sell pitch also conveys the impression that people pushing vaccination have something to hide.

  Let’s hope that the medical industry and government respond to public reluctance by explaining intelligently why vaccinations are worth the risk, by doing some triage and pushing harder for the more important vaccinations than for the entire package, and by not insulting the intelligence of parents whose natural concern for the heath of their children makes them reluctant to have mysterious substances injected into their children’s bodies. Unfortunately, the current response continues to be a legislative one — use the power of government to force parents to do what they don’t want. If we were in the midst of a smallpox epidemic, with its extreme contagiousness and 30% mortality rate, this might be necessary, but for chicken pox and mumps, and when vaccinations of any sort clearly carry non-zero risks?

• 

  Diana on November 27 at 8:51 a.m.

  These genius parents don’t know about the polio epidemic in 1952?

  57,628 cases reported that year, 3,145 died and 21,269 were left with paralysis.

• 

  johnclarke on November 27 at 9:20 a.m.

  Wow Red Cedar, that’s a lot of post.

  Here is the deal - if people want to risk their own children’s lives then ok fine. I personally don’t think they should be in charge of children, but whatever. However, the strength of vaccines have been reduced to the point that a little thing called “herd immunity” is being compromised and these illnesses are breaking out again, and can hurt even kids that have been vaccinated.

  You don’t get to make that choice for me or my kid. Yeah, I think people that don’t want to vaccinate their kids are a bunch of morons but again, that is up to them. They can pull their kids out of public school.

  “the huge increase in childhood asthma and allergies that happened during the same decades when vaccinations were increasing”

  Please provide evidence supporting this statement.

• 

  johnclarke on November 27 at 9:45 a.m.

  http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/disease-prevention/vaccines-and-immunization/news/news/2011/04/measles-outbreaks-across-europe-show-no-sign-of-slowing

  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/us/21vaccine.html

  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125570056

  http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/more-data-on-vaccine-safety-amid-new-outbreaks/

  http://articles.cnn.com/2008-05-01/health/measles.outbreak_1_measles-outbreak-vaccinations-immunization-and-respiratory-diseases?_s=PM:HEALTH

• 

  Loudin on November 27 at 11:56 a.m.

  While I find vaccines to be a gub’nent conspiracy to control us (they actually implant tracking chips in children now), I’m equally concerned about the following:

  1) The world is not spherical, it is flat and your ship will fall off if you get close to the edge.

  2) There is a sound stage in the Nevada desert where the Apollo moon landings were faked; the astronauts never truly played golf or drove their hot rod around on the lunar surface.

  3) 9/11 was a conspiracy by the United Nations to get out of paying rent and parking tickets.

  4) General Motors developed a carburetor in the early 60’s that allowed Corvairs to get 100mpg; they cancelled the project when they realized that even w/100mpg, people still refused to be seen in a Corvair.

  5) The Air Force is spraying us with chemicals that shorten our lifespans in order to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent; they are called chemtrails and sometimes the pilots write “I Love You, Lucy” or “Shop at Huppins” to break up their deadly boredom.

  6) Fluoride is a conspiracy to make us die sooner, yet with fabulous teeth.

  7) If you play “Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer” backwards, you will hear the following: “Dwayne Alton knows what’s best for all of us. Always do what Dwayne says. Studless tires are for Commies, Rush Limbaugh is the Great One. Jesus hates school bonds. Obey the will of Dwayne Alton and his clan forever.”

  Maybe we could get some of the crack reports over at the Spokesman to look into these concerns, before it’s too late.

  Loudin

• 

  MrBloggy on November 27 at 4:01 p.m.

  People in Eastern WA and North ID also lead their states in:

  1. % of fecal material (species undifferentiated) under fingernails
  2. Forehead bruising as a result of walking into stationary objects
  3. Raw, abraded knuckles from unconventional ambulatory postures
  4. Tails (non-vestigial)
  5. Banjo Savants
  6. “If this trailer’s a’rockin’ don’t bother knockin’” bumperstickers on singlewide trailerhomes.
  7. Sister-Cousin-Mothers
  8. Unweened homeschooled youngsters who suckle on mastiff-based breeds
  9. Emergent gill structures
  10. Unconscious knowledge of hell portal locations.

• 

  HealthAdvocate on November 28 at 9:37 a.m.

  “Then came an ever longer schedule of vaccinations for ever less deadly diseases like measles and mumps. Now the kids are even supposed to be vaccinated against chicken pox.”

  Here are just a few scientifically-proven complications from chickenpox (that adolescents and infants are both susceptible to):

  - dehydration
  - pneumonia
  - bleeding problems
  - infection or inflammation of the brain (encephalitis, cerebellar ataxia)
  - bacterial infections of the skin and soft tissues in children including Group A streptococcal infections
  - blood stream infections (sepsis)
  - toxic shock syndrome
  - bone infections
  - joint infections

  Some people with serious complications from chickenpox can become so sick that they need to be hospitalized. Chickenpox can also cause death.

  Last year, I got to watch close family friends miss three weeks of work to stay home with their chickenpox-riddled kids as they suffered from secondary infections, not to mention unnecessary pain and discomfort. Why any parent would choose that when science has given us so many wonderful, modern alternatives for our families is mind boggling.